T16GEM
<font color=blue>I must have a funnel cake when I'
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2003
- Messages
- 6,487
Harleys 1st Trip Day 1 Travelling
We all got up at 5am! It was still dark and very cold! Happy Christmas to everyone! Matts Dad came to collect us at 5.45 and we loaded everything into the car and then found that there was nowhere for me to sit,
so we had to do two journeys to the airport! Luckily we only live 10 mins away so that wasnt too bad!
We arrived at the airport and everyone else was already there, we checked in after causing havoc with the amount of luggage that we had between us 10 suitcases, 2 strollers and 2 car seats. One of my bags was too heavy to go so I had to take some stuff out of it and transfer it into another case which was a pain in the butt! But at least they didnt charge me! We seemed to hold the line up for ages and I am sure that people were thinking I hope we arent sitting by them by the time we had finished!
Because of the security threat we werent allowed to take any of the baby milk cartons on the plane even though they were all sealed up in cardboard packs, so I had to pour one out into Harleys bottle and the rest had to go into the bin. The woman on security said that she should have made me throw away the baby food jars too but as it was Christmas she would let them through. Not sure what she expected me to feed the baby on the flight though as none of the shops in the departure lounge were open and there was no where o buy any baby food??
We decided that we were too excited to eat and stumped for a drink instead, Matt had a pint of cider at 7.30am! I was boring and had a hot chocolate, Shelby had a Ribena, Harley had formula, Mom, Dad and Tezza had coffee and Lou had tea.
After we finished out drinks it was time to board, we were in rows 27 and 28. The flight was ok, we had some turbulence, and Shelby and Harley were passed around and sat on everyone some of the time. We took lots of little presents for her to open and take her mind off the travelling. Harley as usual wasnt that interested in anything other than food and sleep! We didnt watch any of the inflight entertainment as our travelling companions didnt seem to want to let us!
Shelby opened some of her presents too:
Not sure if you can see here - she actually has her earphones on listening to the kids channel!
After 7 ½ hours of flying it was nearly time to land and Mom and Matt had to swap seats as Shelby NEEED MY NANNY as her ears were hurting I think. The landing was ok and we had about 1 ½ hours to get through customs and get the luggage through and back on the plane! I was worried that we wouldnt make it to be honest it seemed like a very short space of time to get everything done in!
I had filled in all of the customs forms on the plane and had missed out filling in the bottom part of the green ones and Tez and Lou got a snotty customs official who sent them to the back of the line ours however could see that we were strugging wrestling with the kids and bags of stuff that he let me fill them in while he scanned us and put the information on the computer. Once we got through that it was time to try and get our bags so off we went on the monorail!
Once we were in the next terminal we found our bags and a nice young man to carry them all through for us Lord only knows how we would have managed with out him! He was an angel! Anyway the bags went through with our new friend and we went to security shoes, belts, babies out of strollers etc etc to get through the x ray and metal detectors.
Anyway we got through ok and boarded the plane at gate 97. Shelby was most upset that we werent at Minnies house yet and caused a scene on the plane while we were waiting to take off. Harley slept again! We had a drink and some nuts and then it was time to get off again.
By this time we had thoroughly had enough of travelling and just wanted to get some food and find our house. Then of course nothing ever goes to plan. We got our luggage and waited for one of my moms bags, and we waited and we waited and we waited. Anyway after about 20 minutes of the same bags going round and round we decided that it wasnt looking good. Then I couldnt find the luggage receipts that they had given me in Birmingham and had to go off to find those! Continental were very helpful though and they found the bag had been left in Newark as it had missed the flight down. They said that it would be forwarded on the next flight and delivered to our address. That was cool as my mom was stressing.
Next it was off to Alamo to get the car, a lovely Toyota Sienna people carrier thingy. It was rather big! We managed to get everything in the car and then we were off to our villa, it took about 30 mins to get to it, we had FILs Tom Tom so that made it a lot easier. We were in a villa on Eagle Pointe, just of Hwy 192. Once we found the house we decided to get the kids in to bed then DH went out to find some food they were gone ages though and by the time they got back I had decided that I was to tired to eat so I went to bed!
We all got up at 5am! It was still dark and very cold! Happy Christmas to everyone! Matts Dad came to collect us at 5.45 and we loaded everything into the car and then found that there was nowhere for me to sit,
so we had to do two journeys to the airport! Luckily we only live 10 mins away so that wasnt too bad! We arrived at the airport and everyone else was already there, we checked in after causing havoc with the amount of luggage that we had between us 10 suitcases, 2 strollers and 2 car seats. One of my bags was too heavy to go so I had to take some stuff out of it and transfer it into another case which was a pain in the butt! But at least they didnt charge me! We seemed to hold the line up for ages and I am sure that people were thinking I hope we arent sitting by them by the time we had finished!
Because of the security threat we werent allowed to take any of the baby milk cartons on the plane even though they were all sealed up in cardboard packs, so I had to pour one out into Harleys bottle and the rest had to go into the bin. The woman on security said that she should have made me throw away the baby food jars too but as it was Christmas she would let them through. Not sure what she expected me to feed the baby on the flight though as none of the shops in the departure lounge were open and there was no where o buy any baby food??
We decided that we were too excited to eat and stumped for a drink instead, Matt had a pint of cider at 7.30am! I was boring and had a hot chocolate, Shelby had a Ribena, Harley had formula, Mom, Dad and Tezza had coffee and Lou had tea.
After we finished out drinks it was time to board, we were in rows 27 and 28. The flight was ok, we had some turbulence, and Shelby and Harley were passed around and sat on everyone some of the time. We took lots of little presents for her to open and take her mind off the travelling. Harley as usual wasnt that interested in anything other than food and sleep! We didnt watch any of the inflight entertainment as our travelling companions didnt seem to want to let us!
Not sure if you can see here - she actually has her earphones on listening to the kids channel!
After 7 ½ hours of flying it was nearly time to land and Mom and Matt had to swap seats as Shelby NEEED MY NANNY as her ears were hurting I think. The landing was ok and we had about 1 ½ hours to get through customs and get the luggage through and back on the plane! I was worried that we wouldnt make it to be honest it seemed like a very short space of time to get everything done in!
I had filled in all of the customs forms on the plane and had missed out filling in the bottom part of the green ones and Tez and Lou got a snotty customs official who sent them to the back of the line ours however could see that we were strugging wrestling with the kids and bags of stuff that he let me fill them in while he scanned us and put the information on the computer. Once we got through that it was time to try and get our bags so off we went on the monorail!
Once we were in the next terminal we found our bags and a nice young man to carry them all through for us Lord only knows how we would have managed with out him! He was an angel! Anyway the bags went through with our new friend and we went to security shoes, belts, babies out of strollers etc etc to get through the x ray and metal detectors.
Anyway we got through ok and boarded the plane at gate 97. Shelby was most upset that we werent at Minnies house yet and caused a scene on the plane while we were waiting to take off. Harley slept again! We had a drink and some nuts and then it was time to get off again.
By this time we had thoroughly had enough of travelling and just wanted to get some food and find our house. Then of course nothing ever goes to plan. We got our luggage and waited for one of my moms bags, and we waited and we waited and we waited. Anyway after about 20 minutes of the same bags going round and round we decided that it wasnt looking good. Then I couldnt find the luggage receipts that they had given me in Birmingham and had to go off to find those! Continental were very helpful though and they found the bag had been left in Newark as it had missed the flight down. They said that it would be forwarded on the next flight and delivered to our address. That was cool as my mom was stressing.
Next it was off to Alamo to get the car, a lovely Toyota Sienna people carrier thingy. It was rather big! We managed to get everything in the car and then we were off to our villa, it took about 30 mins to get to it, we had FILs Tom Tom so that made it a lot easier. We were in a villa on Eagle Pointe, just of Hwy 192. Once we found the house we decided to get the kids in to bed then DH went out to find some food they were gone ages though and by the time they got back I had decided that I was to tired to eat so I went to bed!
still the kids were helpful !
Great start Gems
Off to read day 2!
